Big day for Yamazaki Mazak

Business Secretary Vince Cable recently visited leading machine tool manufacturer Yamazaki Mazak (www.mazak.eu) in Worcester. His visit included a tour of Mazak’s European Technology Centre, which showcases many of the machine tools that the group has designed and built in the UK; this was followed by a tour of the manufacturing plant, which produces more than 1,000 machine tools every year for UK and European customers. Dr Cable, pictured with apprentice Craig Fitton and Mazak Europe Group MD Marcus Burton, said: “Manufacturing is a national success story that is vital to our economic growth. Businesses like Yamazaki Mazak demonstrate that the UK can continue to lead the way in developing cutting-edge technologies. It is a great example of what manufacturing in this country is all about.”

It was announced on the day of Dr Cable’s visit that Yamazaki Mazak has merged its machine tools and laser cutting divisions into a single sales structure (traditionally, these two technologies have had separate sales and marketing structures across all markets). The new single sales structure is designed to encourage technological interchange between the previously separate divisions — and greater synergy for customers, particularly in pre-sales and after-sales.